Slavery Advertisements Published May 10, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (May 10, 1776).

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Connecticut Gazette (May 10, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 10, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 10, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 10, 1776).

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Supplement to the Virginia Gazette [Purdie] (May 10, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published May 10, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Gazette (May 10, 1776).

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Essex Journal (May 10, 1776).

May 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-England Chronicle (May 9, 1776).

“The Sign of the YANKEE HERO.”

The May 9, 1776, edition of the New-England Chronicle once again carried an advertisement for the “American Coffee-House,” the establishment that Daniel Jones opened on King Street not long after British troops brought the siege to an end by departing from Boston on March 17.  Jones invited the “Gentlemen of the UNITED COLONIES” to enjoy the “best of liquors, lodgings, and a variety of provisions” in addition to coffee.  Jones made clear that the “American Coffee-House” was a place for patriots to gather.

That was also the case at the tavern that John Newell ran “in Wing’s-Lane, near the Market.”  He published a short advertisement that announced, “ENTERTAINMENT for Gentlemen and keeping for Horses, at the sign of the YANKEE HERO.”  That name honored the accomplishments and the sacrifices made in Massachusetts over the past year and throughout the imperial crisis.  It included the victims of the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, and the Sons of Liberty who tossed tea into the harbor on December 16, 1773.  The “YANKEE HERO” referred to the men involved in the first battles of the war, the battles at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.  Some had been killed, but others forced the British back into Boston where they were besieged for nearly a year.  The “YANKEE HERO” referred to the men from Massachusetts and throughout New England who left their towns to participate in the siege.  It also referred to the men who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, especially the men died in that engagement.  Those casualties included Joseph Warren, recently commissioned a major general in the colony’s militia, president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and an advocate of American liberties during the imperial crisis that became a war.  Yet Newell did not name his tavern after Warren nor after John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, or any of the other leaders who had been so active at town meetings in Boston or represented Massachusetts in the Second Continental Congress.  Instead, he likely intended for prospective patrons to think of the many men who answered the call to defend their colony and their liberties, some making a final sacrifice to do so, and perhaps even to see themselves in the character of the “YANKEE HERO” as they continued in their resistance to British tyranny.  Where they chose to gather to drink, socialize, and discuss politics resonated with an identity shifting from British to American on the eve of declaring independence.

Slavery Advertisements Published May 9, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Maryland Gazette (May 9, 1776).

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Maryland Gazette (May 9, 1776).

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New-England Chronicle (May 9, 1776).

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New-England Chronicle (May 9, 1776).

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New-England Chronicle (May 9, 1776).

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New York Packet (May 9, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published May 9, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

New York Packet (May 9, 1776).

May 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (May 8, 1776).

“It hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”

At the same time that John Elliott promoted a “CONSIDERABLE assortment” of looking glasses available at his store on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, he also aimed to sell the entire business to an entrepreneur who would purchase his complete inventory and the location that had been familiar to residents of the bustling port for more than a decade.  To draw attention to his advertisement in the May 8, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette, he included a woodcut depicting “the sign of the Bell and Looking-glass” that, according to previous advertisements, marked his location.

Among his inventory, Elliott had “Pier and Sconces GLASSES” as well as “a large choice of neat Dressing GLASSES, together with a great number of smaller sizes.”  He made retail sales, but he also hoped to supply “country stores and shopkeepers” who would make wholesale purchases to augment the merchandise they had on hand in their towns and villages.  The consumer revolution, after all, extended far beyond major urban ports, reaching eager consumers in the countryside.  Elliott hoped that the enthusiasm for acquiring goods would convince someone to purchase his entire store, despite the uncertainty of the war.  After all, even if consumers shifted from purchasing imported textiles and accessories to homespun fabrics, they still wanted to assess how they appeared in looking glasses.  As fashions changed, due to either tastes or politics, consumers continued to strive to make themselves presentable to others and depended on looking glasses in their efforts to do so.

That made selling looking glasses an attractive venture.  At least Elliott hoped that was the case.  He announced that he planned “to sell the house he lives in, which is properly fitted up for carrying on the LOOKING-GLASS business, particularly for quicksilvering.”  A prospective buyer did not need to have previous experience peddling looking glasses. Elliott declared that he was “willing to communicate to any person who may purchase” his house, store, and “the remaining stock on hand” the methods of the “art” of quicksilvering and “all other instructions for carrying on said trade.”  To sweeten the deal, he also assured prospective buyers that the location “hath been a noted and good-accustomed store for looking-glasses near 14 years.”  Elliott offered an opportunity for an entrepreneur interested in running their own business to take over a successful enterprise, one that he would “sell very low.”  For a small investment, a new owner could benefit from all the advantages that Elliott accumulated over the years.  Did those advantages outweigh the risks? Elliott tried to convince prospective buyers that they did.

Slavery Advertisements Published May 8, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Journal (May 8, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published May 8, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Journal (May 8, 1776).

May 7

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (May 7, 1776).

“THE DISEASES incident to ARMIES … published for the use of military and naval surgeons.”

During the first week of May 1776, Robert Bell announced the publication of “THE DISEASES incident to ARMIES, with the Method of Cure; translated from the original of Baron Van Swieten, physician to their imperial Majesties.”  Yet that was not the only title in the volume.  Bell compiled an anthology that also included “the Nature and Treatment of GUN SHOT WOUNDS, by John Ranby, Esq; Surgeon General to the British army,” “Preventatives of the Scurvy at Sea, by William Northcote, surgeon many years in the sea service,” “Rules for preserving Health in warm and cold climates, by Doctor Lind,” and “Directions to be observed by sea surgeons in engagements.”  Bell presented the compilation “for the use of military and naval surgeons.”  Over the past year, Bell and other printers in Philadelphia published an array of military manuals for officers and soldiers.  The publication of this volume acknowledged another aspect of the war that began at the battles in Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

To promote this medical manual, Bell added a “Memorandum” to his advertisement in the May 7 edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  “It is presumed,” he declared, “that whatever contributeth to promote the health and happiness of such valuable lives as those of American soldiers and sailors, should meet with a generous reception.”  He considered it appropriate that “those who are more immediately engaged in the pecuniary superintendment of [soldiers’ and sailors’] welfare” would purchase and consult the volume, yet those were not the only prospective customers who should support the publication of the medical manual.  The printer suggested that “all friends to liberty and humanity” should demonstrate their support for American soldiers and sailors, including civilians “who are in opulent circumstances” and, especially, “all the capital land sea officers, whose personal safety, wither from or in diseases (as well as the very large number of privates under their command) are so very dependent on the knowledge and abilities of their physicians.”  In other words, officers should purchase copies that they could later give or loan to the doctors and surgeons who provided medical care to the soldiers and sailors under their command.  Doing so, Bell suggested, was an obligation they assumed when they accepted the responsibilities of leadership.  That made his medical anthology an essential companion to the military manuals that he published and sold during the Revolutionary War.

May 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Norwich Packet (May 6, 1776).

“FOUR different Views of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, &c. on the 19th  of April, 1775.”

With the war now in its second year, Joseph Carpenter, a goldsmith and jeweler, marketed a series of commemorative prints depicting the battles of Lexington and Concord that he sold at his shop “Near the Court-House” in Norwich, Connecticut.  Even though he stated that these “FOUR different Views” had “Just come to Hand,” other retailers had made them available months earlier.  In fact, his advertisement in the May 6, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet replicated large portions of the James Lockwood’s advertisement in the December 13, 1775, edition of the Connecticut Journal.

In addition to the description of the series of prints matching, the titles that Carpenter listed for the prints reflected Lockwood’s advertisement rather than the titles engraved at the top of each of them.  Plate I was called “The Battle of Lexington” on both the print and in the advertisement, but Plate II was simply called “A View of the Town of Concord” on the print.  In both advertisements, however, it had a more elaborate title, “A View of the Town of Concord, with the Ministerial Troops destroying the Stores.”  The title engraved on Plate III named it “The Engagement at the North Bridge in Concord,” yet the advertisements called it “The Battle at the North-Bridge in Concord.”  Finally, the tile on Plate IV declared that it presented a “View of the South Part of Lexington,” yet the advertisements said that it show “The south Part of Lexington, where the first Detachment were joined by Lord Percy.

Both advertisements informed prospective customers that “[t]he above four Plates were neatly engraved on Copper, from original Paintings take on the Spot.”  Amos Doolittle engraved the images based on painting by Ralph Earl.  How Carpenter acquired them, he did not say, only that they had “Just come to Hand.”  When they did, it appears that whoever supplied them to the goldsmith and jeweler in Norwich also sent an advertisement clipped from a newspaper printed in New Haven or a letter that copied the notice in the Connecticut Journal.  Lockwood’s original advertisement circulated in unintended ways before being disseminated in print once again for the benefit of another purveyor of the commemorative prints in another newspaper.  Carpenter did not generate his own copy when he marketed the “FOUR different Views of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, &c. on the 19th  of April, 1775,” but instead relied on an advertisement originally published months earlier.